New Land Rover Defender X P400 review: https://www.evo.co.uk/land-rover/defender/...400-review

Quote:

... This P400 mild-hybrid is currently the only straight-six available in the Defender, although a diesel will arrive soon enough, with the 3-litre unit featuring both a conventional twin-scroll turbocharger and a 48V electric supercharger. There’s also a belt-integrated starter motor in lieu of an alternator, with a 48V lithium-ion battery that stores recuperated energy as the car slows.

Combined, these two elements produce 394bhp and 406lb ft of torque, making this the most powerful Defender in the company’s history. The quickest, too, with a 0-60mph time of 6.1sec and a 129mph maximum if you go for the optional 22-inch wheels, otherwise you’re pinned back to 119mph.

There’s a claim of 29.4mpg, but we did struggle to get out of the teens on our drive. Perhaps a longer run on a motorway would help rather than a mad dash across the Fosse Way in the Cotswolds. ...

What's it like to drive?
Nothing like a Defender of old, which some of you will be more than happy about while others will head straight outside to hose out the interior of their ‘real’ Defender. But it’s 2020 and having a car that drove like it was designed to survive being dropped from a plane makes for a lovely piece of nostalgia, but not such a great car.

In the new Defender you’re driving a car that works on road as well as it does off it. It doesn’t lurch around or pitch itself into a corner or around a motorway slip road curve with the grace of an elephant on skates. It drives like a normal car. It drives better than most car-based SUVs.There’s a suppleness to its ride quality that puts the Discovery 5 to shame and its body control is superior, too. It certainly responds to being hustled along better than the 5, and aside from the slightest evidence of vagueness from the steering around the dead ahead when the optional off-road tyres are fitted, you find yourself travelling quicker than expected.

The thump from the straight-six helps considerably here, neither troubled by the 2443kg kerb weight nor aerodynamics that probably raised a snigger from the wind tunnel operators. Its step-off from stationary is instant, the mid-range punchy and responsive beyond all expectations, and it even enjoys troubling the red line. Unlike its predecessor and so many of its ilk, it lets you set the pace rather than dictate it. For those long road trips and too far away places that Defenders are drawn to, the road part will no longer be a chore.

Your overriding impression of the new Defender is just how complete it feels. How nothing has been compromised or sacrificed and every need has been catered for. It will still crawl up a rock face or submerge itself in a bog and haul itself out the other end, but crucially it will no longer suck the life out of you when you need to travel any distance on a road. ...

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2010 Defender Puma 90 + BAS remap + Alive IC + Slickshift + Ashcroft ATB rear
2015 Range Rover Sport Supercharged V8 HSE Dynamic



Defender Puma Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zZ1en9
Discovery 4 Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zXrtKO
Range Rover/Sport L320/L322/L494 Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zc58JQ

With every review, the Defender sounds like a well sorted vehicle. I'm looking forward to have a good look around one when they hit the showrooms. I missed the Defender Roadshow events, sadly. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

naks wrote:

Land Rover Defender spied testing with a V8: https://www.autoblog.com/2020/04/24/land-r...e-2227525]

A few LR staff on social media put up the configurator sheet to claim it’s a P400, a quick vehicle plate
check shows it had an engine transplant from 3.0 to 5,0 since it rolled off the line  Another Pommie Bar Steward down under

MY20 Defender 110 SE P400 Eiger/Ebony
MY10 3.0 RRS TDv6 Fuji/Ebony/Anigre

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2010 Defender Puma 90 + BAS remap + Alive IC + Slickshift + Ashcroft ATB rear
2015 Range Rover Sport Supercharged V8 HSE Dynamic



Defender Puma Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zZ1en9
Discovery 4 Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zXrtKO
Range Rover/Sport L320/L322/L494 Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zc58JQ

A kiwi review: https://www.driven.co.nz/reviews/giving-th...n-namibia/

Quote:

Pros
Instant icon: first new Defender in 72 years
Impressive new Terrain Response system
Subtle but clever heritage styling cues

Cons
Premium product so premium prices
High-tech might put old-school 4x4 people off
Still haven't driven this new model on the road ...


... The Defender ate it all up, notwithstanding a few consumables. We got three separate punctures on two different cars for example, but that hardly dented Land Rover’s stock of 120 spares for the event. There are some big rocks out there.


The 18-inch painted-white steel wheels on the expedition D240 models are not only a fashion master-stroke, they’re more practical for off-roading. “I prefer them,” says lead Experience driver David Sneath. “Alloys can break. With these, they bend and you can just tap them back into shape and carry on.”


Genuine problems are few. We get a power steering warning at one stage, possibly due to so much water being forced under the bonnet at high pressure as we rage through riverbeds for hours on end. We also lose a piece of sill trim after being instructed to attack a river crossing with “passion”. Could be considered corporate littering, I suppose. Once these cars get back to the UK, they’ll all be stripped down, inspected, analysed and rebuilt. And no, they won’t be resold; all are destined to work as support vehicles for Land Rover Experience events.


Defender is a fascinating blend of heritage design and the very latest in Land Rover’s off-road technology. Petrol or diesel? I love the earnest clatter of a Defender with a compression-ignition engine, but this is a heavy car at 2.4 tonnes and it’s the grunty six-pot petrol that gives it truly engaging performance, whether you’re creating a rooster tail of sand or not.


This was an exhausting trip, but not an exhaustive test of course. It was a chance for the Defender to establish its credentials in the harsh environment that helped create the legend, before heading out into the wider (urban) world… and a much broader customer base than the previous model could ever hope to attract. Also, a great chance for us to really give it the beans.

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2010 Defender Puma 90 + BAS remap + Alive IC + Slickshift + Ashcroft ATB rear
2015 Range Rover Sport Supercharged V8 HSE Dynamic



Defender Puma Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zZ1en9
Discovery 4 Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zXrtKO
Range Rover/Sport L320/L322/L494 Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zc58JQ

Quote:

Instant icon: first new Defender in 72 years

Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh!  2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

https://www.whichcar.com.au/reviews/2020-l...663-review

Quote:

Drive impressions

Our first taste of the new Land Rover came in Namibia driving a D240 variant looking very traditional in its Pangaea Green paint with white roof and white steel wheels. The overall look of the new vehicle is sure to be polarising, as it takes no prisoners with a design that is modern while incorporating hues of the classic Land Rovers of the past.

The vehicles on this trip were fitted with the Expedition package which includes a raised air-intake snorkel, expedition roof rack, a ladder to access the roof on the passenger’s side, and a storage box on the driver’s side. They were also fitted with Goodyear Duratrac all-terrain tyres to conquer sharp, rocky tracks in confidence.

The D240 is powered by the 2.0-litre Ingenium diesel engine that makes a sprightly 177kW and 430Nm, making light work of the steep African terrain and sandy tracks. The diesel engine is stunningly quiet both at idle and under load and you’d be hard-pressed to pick it as a diesel from within the cabin.

The eight-speed automatic transmission is perfectly matched to the modern powerplant, giving smooth and refined shifting. The engine is relatively small but the power and torque figures are on the money; though it will be interesting to drive this combination with a heavier load on board than what we had here. ...

The low-range/low-gear engine braking is good, but, even so, the descent still required the driver to hover a foot over the brake to control speed. We found the sensitivity of the brake-by-wire system to be odd, providing little to no retardation at minimum brake input and then jolting the vehicle to a stop if squeezed a tad more.

We brought this up with chief engineer, Steven Frick, citing it as a problem, and he said we weren’t the first to note it and it is something the company will look at on the production vehicles. All of these cars were pre-production models and calibration of the brake-by-wire system should be easy to refine to get the right feel and performance. It’s something we’ll certainly look for when we get to drive production vehicles back here in Australia later this year. ...

We also got to drive the P400 110, and what a pleasure that was. This is powered by Land Rover’s new 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder, turbocharged petrol engine, which is also boosted by an electric supercharger feeding from the 48-volt electrical system. The theory is that the electric supercharger provides the boost at low revs before the turbocharger wakes up as the revs climb.

It works too, with 294kW on tap and 550Nm from as low as 2000rpm. That torque feels almost diesel-like in its delivery, making the P400 a pleasure to drive both at low speed over off-road terrain and quicker over fast-flowing roads.

We didn’t get actual fuel figures on this drive, but at fill-up time the diesel D240s were taking almost half as much fuel as the petrol P400s, and that’s driving over the same 680km route, of which only 4km were on sealed roads.

It was on these flowing open roads that the true ‘breadth of ability’ of the new Defender revealed itself. Never before has a Defender felt so composed at speed – it is a real confidence-inspiring high-speed tourer. The steering is perfectly weighted and the communication of the suspension through to the driver is superb for such a large vehicle. The L663 feels right at home on high-speed sand and gravel roads, which is something you would never have said about a Defender in the past.

It’s this new-found performance and on-road manners that make this new Land Rover such a revelation which, depending on sale price, should be hugely popular in a big country like Australia. ...

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2010 Defender Puma 90 + BAS remap + Alive IC + Slickshift + Ashcroft ATB rear
2015 Range Rover Sport Supercharged V8 HSE Dynamic



Defender Puma Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zZ1en9
Discovery 4 Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zXrtKO
Range Rover/Sport L320/L322/L494 Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zc58JQ

auto express UK review on the P400.. counting down the "months" until mine shows up

Click image to enlarge

TFL talking cars team interviewing Scott Brady from Overland/Expedition Portal on his thoughts and findings of the New Defender based upon his trip to Namibia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNRf5hzADi...YfT2QgRF58 Another Pommie Bar Steward down under

MY20 Defender 110 SE P400 Eiger/Ebony
MY10 3.0 RRS TDv6 Fuji/Ebony/Anigre

US Dealer gets his new Defender demo, but it ends up as not such a good advert for jeep

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAqgKv5ghGI/?f...wY1TCWXveE Another Pommie Bar Steward down under

MY20 Defender 110 SE P400 Eiger/Ebony
MY10 3.0 RRS TDv6 Fuji/Ebony/Anigre

Finally, some proper off-roading with a direct comparison between old & new Defender, although the driver does not seem to know what he's doing...




Clearly the driver is new to off-roading, and it also doesn't seem like that 110 has the rear e-diff. He also clearly doesn't know how to get the TC to work properly.

But even without the rear e-diff, it shouldn't have gotten stuck so much.

I would have walked that hill in my D4 and RRS. --
2010 Defender Puma 90 + BAS remap + Alive IC + Slickshift + Ashcroft ATB rear
2015 Range Rover Sport Supercharged V8 HSE Dynamic



Defender Puma Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zZ1en9
Discovery 4 Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zXrtKO
Range Rover/Sport L320/L322/L494 Workshop Manual: https://bit.ly/2zc58JQ

Quote:

Clearly the driver is new to off-roading

Naks as is the spotter / guide i would suggest, waving the guy on which ended up with him ripping the front plastics off  Another Pommie Bar Steward down under

MY20 Defender 110 SE P400 Eiger/Ebony
MY10 3.0 RRS TDv6 Fuji/Ebony/Anigre

Absolutely dire example of off road driving. Or a perfect example of how not to do it, if you prefer.

It'll be used, no doubt, by the fans of Toyota and other brands to show that the new Defender is rubbish. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

not sure if this had already been posted elsewhere on the site, Autocar short article on the future
D300 straight six spotted being tested

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-car...ed-testing Another Pommie Bar Steward down under

MY20 Defender 110 SE P400 Eiger/Ebony
MY10 3.0 RRS TDv6 Fuji/Ebony/Anigre

RRSTDV8 wrote:

Absolutely dire example of off road driving.

it was not that good  Another Pommie Bar Steward down under

MY20 Defender 110 SE P400 Eiger/Ebony
MY10 3.0 RRS TDv6 Fuji/Ebony/Anigre